> When I went to college, the number 69 had obscene connotations, at least among
> undergraduates. It was supposed to be a euphemism for oral sex, based on the
> 6 and the 9 being upside-down versions of one another.
Several people have pointed out the less-than-erotic appearance of 69 when
written in Roman numerals. (Although I'm sure that there must be suggestive
combinations or Ms, Xs, and Ls ...)
It's also worth pointing out that it took some time for Arabic/Indian numbers to
adopt their current form in the west. If you look at present day Arabic digits
(see the attachment to this mail, or look at:
http://www.digitmania.holowww.com/gif/clnind.gif) then you can make out their
relationship to our own digits, but many of them have been turned on their side.
The '6' in particular looks more like a '7' with a concave top. I assume that it
was rotated anticlockwise, and that the concavity gradually turned into a
circle. Then it became even more upright, and finally adopted the position that
we use today.
I recall seeing an astrolabe in the British Museum, which I *think* was of
medieval/early renaissance European contruction. The digits on it were a strange
hybrid of traditional Arabic and modern European styles.
Alasdair.
P.S. I know one shouldn't attach large images to mails, but this one's only 750
bytes, honest....
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